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A guest post from Satyanarayan who was a part of a relief team after the cyclone Phailin spelled a trail of havoc in Odisha. Not only crops and people were affected, but also animals and properties were ruthlessly damaged. Satya recounts his experience of being a part of a team that was completely managed by women activists.

Visiting the villages hit by cyclone Phailin and seeing fellow human beings suffer through nature’s calamity has been one of the most poignant experiences of my life until date (P.N: The photographs in this post are taken by me and may be reproduced with a link back to Anne de Plume’s blog ‘Iris’) . The Cyclonic storm named “Phailin” derived from the thai word called sapphirehas caused massive devastation in and around costal belt of Odisha, leaving lakhs of people homeless and in distress. Needless to say, the rosy-sounding name of Phailin was not that rosy for the people of Odisha that hit the coasts on 12 October 2013. The devastation was massive as it has brought flood along with it.

The cyclonic storm struck Gopalpur at midnight with a gushing speed of about 220 kmph and moved in same south west direction to costal belt of Andhra Pradesh namely Srikakulam, Ichapuram, Jharkhand, Bihar. Unlike 1999 cyclone, this time at least there was accurate and timely prediction done by Indian Meteorological Department leaving State Government authorities to plan and execute proper plan of action to deal with the cyclone. There was timely deployment of ODRAF, NDRAF (National Disaster Relief Action Force), Air force, Army and Navy. Yet, there was a lot more to be done and achieved than what was being done for people.

However, while the preventive measures were great and the media coverage of the event was extensive, television channels and national media completely forgot to cover the aftermath of the cyclone which was excessively damaging in the form of floods. The aftermath of the cyclone was massive flood, extensive damage to kutcha houses, large scale disruption of electrical and communication lines, disruption of rail and road traffic and of course potential threat of flying debris. Soon people started to commute with boats inside the city of Berhampur as no other mode of communication was possible. The massive devastation has paralyzed the entire rescue operation.

Coverage by local media like OTV and ETV played the only key role in understanding the aftermath of the cyclone and in developing plan of action to deal with such crisis.

Seeing the situation first hand along with a relief team, I kept on imagining that it is “far beyond human mind to comprehend the act of nature’s fury”.

I made a choice to be associated with the Sailashree Vihar Women’s Association, a voluntary organization to support the cause and stand up with those people caught in this tragedy. The reason being that a group of twenty-two homemakers, all women, were uniting in their efforts to collect relief materials and also spread sensitivity about the situation in Odisha by visiting homes and generating awareness. The enthusiasm and energy in this group was huge. The group planned meticulously and resolved to deliver the collected relief material to the appropriate places. They wanted to go to ground zero and work there even if for a day.

The ladies spread the message in the neighbourhood and started collecting relief materials from the local residents. Items were collected in form of clothes, biscuits, mixtures, poha mixed with gur, candle, match box, water pouch etc. They took the help of Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation in identifying the most impactful place of Ganjam district. Khalikote is the place that was chosen for distribution of relief material. They decided to travel to Sana Ghati and Badagora villages, some of the highly affected localities in Phailin. The relief material was to be distributed among 150 families in two villages.

Before traveling to the villages, all the ladies of the association sat together till midnight to make small packets, so as to streamline the distribution process and ensure that each family gets proper share of relief.

On the D-Day that is on 27 October 2013 early morning around 0630 AM around 8 women and a small group of 5-6 men assembled together to drive to our destination in two cars and one relief truck carrying the materials collected. On the way the relief van got some problem with its engine and it could not move further, there was immediate need of another relief van so that material could be shifted and reaching final destination. We were afraid because of many news pieces which reported that relief material were being looted on the way. By the time we reached Khalikote it was 0230 PM.

It was raining and the cloud was dense. There was absolute silence and the impact of devastation was felt. After reaching Khalikhote, we met with Mr Mishra, IIC (Inspector In-charge). The police advised us to first take appropriate permission from the Collector he advised us to meet with Mr Hanuman, Block Development Office. Someone advised us to leave the relief materials in the police station or with the village sarpanch who would ensure that the material are duly distributed. However, the women in our group protested and said that they would themselves like to distribute the material to the people who needed and would ensure that the relief reached those who are affected. We were advised to take police help in order to avoid any untoward situation. Mr. Hanuman took the permission of the Collector and he agreed to the distribution of relief and assigned a platoon of police force for smooth coordination and to control any kind of unforeseen situation if they arise. The situation was clearly tensed in the villages, because people were living in utter darkness (without electricity) for days now.

The police van with a loud-speaker announced the relief distribution program to villagers who slowly came out of their homes near the van. It was probably one of the most intense and heart-touching experiences of our life. Entire villages were under water and there were neither roads nor any other amenity available, paddy cultivation completely ripe and ready to be harvested were destroyed, and the anger and frustration on the faces of people were clearly visible. A place that they called their home, was washed away by the fury of nature. I wondered, “why god, why has it to be my people for years and years?”

On seeing women activists leading the relief vans, District Officials and Police force, villagers were extremely happy and sigh of relief could be seen in their eyes and similarly we could realize their agony and helplessness in dealing with the crisis. There was an instinctive understanding and a deeper connection that these villagers shared with women in our group, almost like mother-child relationship, which perhaps was beyond the comprehension of men like us. There was only one prayer on everyone’s lips “Oh God give them the Courage to fight”.There was one thing which was clear to us. The people whom we met were not taking the relief materials out of their choice, rather it was because of the circumstances that they were bound to accept help and aid from people. There was a look of suspicion and in fact hatred initially because it appears when a relief team reaches from the city that they are there to do ‘charity’ and not empathize with the condition of the affected.

At last the relief material were duly distributed and we came back home. The food we had packed as lunch remained untouched because we had seen much more than what we could absorb….

Those who have been regulars of Iris will recollect the ‘Through My Lenses’ series and Koraput Moments. I had promised in that article, written a year ago (precisely June 2010) that I’ll be back with the second part of the story soon. However, the pictures somehow vanished from my hard-disk and then I could not locate them for one year, until this June when suddenly they reemerged mysteriously from my old desktop’s hard-disk.

Well, a commitment once made is a commitment to be kept — so this weekend article is Anne’s tribute to some unexplored and exquisitely beautiful parts of Odisha — Koraput, Jeypore, and Gupteswar . It’s completely an individual’s experience and perception of the landscape through the camera lenses. I would love to hear your opinions and experience if any of the valley.

Koraput, is a sylvan landscape ensconced between hills and mountains. There is the gorgeous Araku valley connecting Andhra and Odisha on one end and then there is the Salur Ghat on the other end that connects NH 43 and the rest of Odisha to this valley town located ‘Far From the Madding Crowd’. Rajam is the largest town on the way from Bhubaneswar to Koraput.

Completely girdling the Eastern Ghats, the ghat roads are a beauty in themselves — clouds knocking at your window and if you are lucky enough you might catch a glimpse of thousands of tiger butterflies fluttering around. However, a word of caution — the ghat roads are not safe to be traveled at night or even late evening.

The ghat road

Butterflies flocking around _ in Salur Ghat

A Close-up Profile

Watching these butterflies fly around you is like watching thousands of gig-lamps burning at one go. The Eastern Ghats are known for their erratic weather and sudden spells of rain. I had described about Koraput and life there in the first part of this article. Let me invite you to a festivity that I saw in the place.

While staying in Damanjodi, one morning after a bout of rain and thunder-storm, when I found the skies white-washed and the weather inviting for a walk, I took my digicam and went out for a walk from the guest-house towards the nearby locality. I was greeted to the chime of bells, ullu-ullu, and Sankha dhwani. Followed the call of the sankha and landed up in an open area where many married ladies were gathered under a tree. Dressed up in their finery, with pallus over their foreheads and gold jewellery, anklets and alta adorning their feet, against the background of forests and hills — the sight was something to behold. The tree was decorated with sarees, festoons and underneath was the image of a make-shift goddess. On enquiry, someone informed me that it was Savitri Amavasya that day, where married ladies worship the goddess for the long lives of their husbands.

Savitri Puja

Ladies applying Kum-kum on each others forehead

The tree worshiped with sarees and coloured bands

That which struck me as unique in this particular place was the care in which the trees were treated by these ladies. Not a single leaf was supposed to be disturbed by anyone, I was told by an aged lady standing with the sankha there. There was a riot of colours — seemed like nature’s green and the multi-coloured sarees co-mingled and created a visual effect of their own. The rain-washed breeze added the required effect to the settings.

The next morning I went by a car to visit Gupteswar caves. Located 65kms from Koraput, you have to cross Jeypore and move through dense Sal forests in order to reach the caves. The picturesque and extremely controversial Kolab dam is visible from a distance on your way.

View from the roads -- Kolab at a distance

Pastoral

Those of you who are acquainted with Koraput and its histories must be aware that it is currently one of the most troubled landscapes in India. Maoism, Naxalite movements, and religious conversions keep the district in news. Its charm and scenic beauty have given way to turbulent uprisings and daily killings of innocent civilians or junior police officers in the name of Maoist movements and counter-attacks.

Gupteswar falls in that zone of fire. Situated 65kms from the town of Jeypore, the caves are a real adventure for the adventure lover. If you visit Gupteswar make sure that you return to Jeypore before sunset. Dense Sal forests, water-bodies, human-less natural habitats, snakes, and a huge limestone naturally-formed Shiva lingam of more than 5 feet greet you in Gupteswar.

You might encounter some human habitat for a few kilometers after Jeypore, but after that for miles it is only jungle. I was amused by a forest dawk-bungalow inside the dense forests leading to the caves on a district road. If you are an ardent nature lover or a botanical researcher, this forest IB is a must stay place.

A forest dawk-bungalow

The smell of the forests is something unique — scary and enigmatic. The rules of the jungle are beyond the perception of the ‘civilized’ human — but these are rules still.

Miles to go

Road to Gupteswar

The area of Gupteswar is tribal in its life and orientation. For centuries the cave and the puja has been managed by tribes and you would find that the prasad also comprises banana, and wild berries. A fresh water mountain stream that becomes Kolab river criss-crossing the entire Koraput district runs along the foot-hills of the caves. Everything here has the organic charm of the mountains, untouched by the destruction of a ‘civilized’ modernized society. My best experience here was the interaction with the tribes and the women who sell berries — was overwhelmed by the love that they shared with me though we could not interact on the basis of language. Sometimes silence is the best communicator.

A family I met

For the lenses

The gates

If I am asked about my experience of Gupteswar, I would say — surreal. The caves are dark and you have to walk down a flight of steps cut out of the cave rock into a dense darkness. When you reach down and your eyes get accustomed to that darkness, through the lights of dimly lit Deeyas, you will see a huge limestone structure in the form of a shiva-linga staring at you. There are certain explainable aspects of nature and there are many other unexplainable aspects — Gupterswar falls under the category of unexplainable.

Entrance to the caves

The natural limestone Shiva-linga

Lighting up the dark caves

There is a word of caution. When you are walking inside the caves, be a little careful about snakes. Someone was greeted by a small yellow serpent coiled near his feet inside the cave.

Gupteswar

The caves in a close-up

The entrance into Gupteswar area has an interesting goddess with a very deeply entrenched tribal history. She is called — Dalkhai in that area (goddess who likes to eat branches (daal)). You can buy wild berries or branches of Sal leaves for Rs. 2 as a gift for the goddess, who ensures that your journey back to human habitat is safe enough. I met a little girl who appeared to be dressed in a school uniform. She said she goes to a school and also helps her mother to sell the wild berries in this area. Her name is Jhuma is what I could make out from our conversation.

Dalkhai

Jhuma selling wild berries

Share love if you should

My visit to Gupteswar was a revelation in itself. We do not know and neither do we bother to know the secrets of nature very close to human habitat. There is poverty, there is Maoism, but there is also a deep sense of surrealism which is difficult to be expressed in words, unless you experience it.

As I said Koraput, Jeypore and the areas adjoining are troubled and perennially in news because of Maoist activities. While returning back to Jeypore via Nandapur, there is a police outpost called Ramgiri. As we passed Ramgiri, I had a glimpse of the violence that often rocks the valleys and brings it to front pages of newspapers. Ramgiri outpost had freshly been looted and there was a Maoist massacre just a few days ago

Ramgiri Outpost

Gates of the deserted police outpost

Broken gates and roofs _witnesses of violence

Koraput, Sunabeda and its adjacent areas are a delight for the explorer in you. However, these areas have their own set of risks — the risk is neither from animals, nor from the forests, and nor from the tribes. Here human beings of ‘civilized’ societies shed blood in the name of civilization and in the name of defending cultures. If you have to visit Koraput, you will be appalled by the choices that you have as a tourist — Boriguma, Kolab, Sunabeda’s Sabara Shreekshetra — each is a marvel of human craft and nature’s craftsmanship.

My Koraput series ends here. Will embark on a different journey through life, people, and places in the next article. The cup of ginger tea has emptied and the clock says it’s past 1. 30 am. I am reminded of a beautiful mountain song sang by Paraja tribes (a famous tribe of this area) and recorded by Gopinath Mohanty in his novel Paraja:

To the rhyme of the maize that is fried Or the maize that is boiled, I fashion my song; Oh my darling who keeps her word, Lovely is your nose-ring of gold. My dungudunga wears only a brass string But it makes exquisite music.… Oh my darling, do keep your word, Save me, for I die with your name on my lips, Oh Jili! (Gopinath Mohanty, Paraja )

These days people keep talking about ‘moving on’ with life, with times, with new acquaintances and with new careers. Life has become a fast food joint where we serve and are served with instant delicacies (maybe hazardous for health but delicious to taste) while longing for homemade food. However, in this era of fast moving lives, flash-decision making mental drives and glorious capacity of being amnesiacs, there are some things which haven’t changed much and those things pertain not to human habitats or to metropolitan sentiments but rather to nature — nature at its wildest, deadliest best. Nature too is changing because of global warming, climate changes etc., but these are directly or indirectly connected to human interference.

Let me invite you to a trip with me into the wilderness of Odisha, a journey into the district of Koraput. I am sure Koraput, Rayagada, Sunabeda and the adjacent areas are not unfamiliar to an average Indian who reads newspapers at chai stalls or at the breakfast table. Yes! you got it right — Koraput and its adjacent areas are famous or infamous for being centers of naxalite movement in Odisha. Everyday a dozen deaths occur here due to naxalite and Maoist activities. Human life is at its extreme in and around Koraput — poverty, violence, murder, loot, governmental apathy at one extreme and simplicity of tribal life, hospitality, devotion and hard-work at the other extreme. However, it is not my intention here to either discuss naxalite movements or to bring into focus the poverty of people at Koraput — my aim is to capture through my lenses the richness of nature, the beauty and serenity of a place which is gifted organically yet which starves due to human violence and political indifference. If you have the spirit of adventure and a passion to explore the secrets of nature Koraput is the right place for you.

Koraput is located at the southern tip of Odisha and is around 370 kms from Bhubaneswar. It is 2500 mts above sea level and the highest peak of Odisha, Deomali is located in this district. Koraput is well connected to Bhubaneswar and Visakhapatnam by train as well as by road.

Train Route

Train carrying Bauxite from the mountains

It is closely connected with Andhra Pradesh through the Salur ghat which divides Odisha and Andhra and acts as a natural border between the two states.

Through the Salur Ghat

The journey

The beauty of the ghat roads is unspeakable and indiscribable. The Persian poet Jami had said: “Gar Firduas ruhe zamin ast, hamin asto hamin asto hamin asto” “If there is paradise on earth, it is this, it is this, it is this”. It will not be an overstatement if we use the same quote for Koraput and its adjacent places. Those who love mountains, winters and fresh air would find paradise in this place.

Call of the mountains

Marriage of Heaven and Earth

As you travel through the hilly terrains, you find nature at its elements and you also find traces of modernity in terrace farming and the mines.

Terrace Farming

Koraput and the nearby areas are rich treasure troves of minerals, herbs and hydro power. In fact, the “Panchpatmali mines” located near Damanjodi 30 kms from Koraput is considered to be one of the largest bauxite ore mines of the country. It provides raw Bauxite to National Aluminum Company Limited (NALCO) a public sector undertaking (PSU) through a long, winding conveyor belt that connects the tip of the Panchapatmali mountains to the refineries located at Damanjodi.

The Conveyor Connecting Panchpatmali Bauxite Mines

Snapshot of the Conveyor

The process of industrialization has brought many changes in the sentiments of the natives of this district — some positive and some negative. NALCO is not the only large PSU in this area, Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) also has a large MIG aircraft manufacturing sector in this area. The changes heralded by industrialization has affected the natives in multiple ways. Tribal population of these hilly terrains are vehemently possessive about their traditions and their lifestyle. The economic changes that came about with industrialization pushed some of these tribal population into extreme poverty and isolation. Their dressing, food habits, culture everything got affected with the process of external infiltration and economic growth. Whether we name these changes as positive or negative depends on our individual beliefs and opinion.

Posing for my lenses

She said she goes to school

I could not venture into some of the tribal pockets which are still untouched and extremely perilous. These areas are still dominated by tribes which resist any form of external interference or alien infiltration. However, my personal observation regarding the people of these areas is that they are bonded to nature and earth. Their love for nature and earth is manifested in the form of their worship and cultural festivals. Especially, forms of worship in these areas are hugely motivated by forces of nature like trees, animals and birds. I got a chance to visit some of these places and let me admit that even with my ‘secular’ outlook and fear of hurting religious sentiments, I can claim that I deciphered a religion which preaches love and admiration for forces of nature. One such place is called Kanta-baunsiani (Thorn-Bamboo Goddess) an entire bamboo forest which has been personified by the tribals as the “Mother Goddess”.

Temple of the Bamboo-Goddess

Wish-fulfilling Bamboo?

Bamboo bushes worshipped as Mother Goddess

The forms of worship in these bamboo bushes are still primarily tribal. Let me note that sacrifice in the form of hens and lambs are still allowed in this place. The goddess is addressed as “Huzoor!” by the priests and there are no mantras but some form of rhythmic invocation in local languages. If you have some wish to be fulfilled by the goddess, the priest gives you a little raw rice and calls out loudly to the goddess to fulfill your wishes and asks you to wish in your heart and pour the rice grains on the altar. This goddess reminded me of Bono Bibi in the Sunderbans who is revered in similar fashion.

Rituals and Worship of the Bamboo Goddess

When you see these places in Odisha you will feel time stands still and the life that we are leading is just an illusion of modernity and progress. Kanta-baunsiani is a place where nature in the form of bamboo shrubs is revered. You cannot even dream of felling these bamboo bushes.

The story of Koraput remains incomplete. I will take you through some other interesting moments pertaining to places and rituals of Koraput in the second part of this article reserved for my next post.

In my last post I had written about the trip to Puri and peppered it with visuals from Puri highway and Bhubaneswar.

Towards Dusk

Before getting away to a different destination one last remark about evenings at Puri. Puri is a great romantic get away for people who believe in a dream date who takes them to the sea beach in the evening, clear moon lit night and the roar of sometimes Turquoise and sometimes Lapis-Lazuli Bay of Bengal with your loved ones close by. Hmm! Keeping aside the romantic quotients, the Puri sea beach is well endowed with restaurants, inns, bread and breakfast and hotels. In the evening the beach transforms into a makeshift shopping ghetto selling trinkets, accessories, conch and mother-of-pearls, beach wear, kurtas and comfortable sleep-ins. If you are lucky then there might be a Beach festival running in the vicinity of the sea, a real visual bonanza. However, of the less luckier ones like me and for an affordable luxury one might like to hire one of the plastic chairs that cost 10 rupees per head for an hour and enjoy the evening in languorous silence sipping a local chai at 3.00 rupees, interrupted by nothing but the roar of the vast black stillness spreading upto the horizon.

Luxury Hotels by Puri Beach

Hawkers and Stalls

This post will again have a lot of visuals, but not everything is going to be about the ‘beautiful’ and magnificent Odisha.

While the main highways and the roads are being cleaned, decorated and made a visual treat, there are loopholes in the maintenance of housing areas and suburbs. Take for example the most populated suburb Sailashree Vihar in Bhubaneswar. The suburb has houses and plots sold by the Housing Board Societies. There are attempts to build schools, parks, recreation centres and flower nurseries by the BMC (Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation) at several places throughout the locality. However, there is one basic feature lacking in the region — civic amenities. The by-lanes are mostly half-built, dotted with potholes and ditches, and left in complete darkness without streetlights. I understand the necessity of saving electricity, but do not comprehend the idea that roads and lanes should go without streetlamps. I still do not understand which logic is more essential — security of human lives or saving electricity? especially, when there are highways in Bhubaneswar which are lit up day and night with beautiful wrought-iron lamps. These lanes are infested with goons and petty thieves, who take advantage of the darkness and loot ladies wearing gold chains or earrings and snatch purses from people returning from office at late hours. Moreover, these by-lanes are so ill-maintained that most of the times the potholes are filled with mud and dirty water during rainy season, or else the water pipes which are supposed to water the saplings planted in the newly built parks, actually end up watering the roads and lanes, difficult to even swim through to the main highway 🙂 .

Conserving electricity is a great idea but then the need to conserve water 🙂 ? What about hydro-power? Well…what we conserve and how much we conserve also depends on our priorities and our insight into things and requirements great and small. These days in the name of conservation we waste more than saving.

State of a Bylane in Bhubaneswar

A closer snapshot of this gorgeous puddle in the locality would perhaps benefit us a little more. So here are some more pictures of the same spectacle. Instead of parks, the lanes are being generously watered.

Water, water, everywhere...

A Closer Snapshot

Let us move to some other trivial aspects of my traveler’s diary; to some aspects of my personal-professional life 🙂 . I started my career as a Lecturer in a small technical college 180 kms away from Bhubaneswar. I had just completed my Post-graduation and was doing my M.Phil when this job came my way. I considered myself lucky because in those days technical colleges were not very common in Odisha and that place gave me my first exposure to teaching and also to Internet. I learnt browsing useful articles and educational sites. However, now the scenario has changed — entire landscape of Odisha is flagged with technical colleges. A new college comes up each morning. There are at least 100 engineering colleges in Odisha (while writing this post). You will be surprised to know that more than 9000 seats are vacant at this moment (till Oct, 2009) in these colleges. And the quality of the so called engineering students and facilities in colleges — you should visit once to know better. Now the question arises – how much they deliver….??? People tend to question your credentials if you happen to teach or be associated with any of these colleges at any point of time. I have been questioned by interviewers time and again about the validity of teaching or working in these places while documenting it in my CV . I make it a point to retain that aspect as my first job experience out of a kind of defiance.

College Buses

On one hand these colleges promise a degree in technical excellence and give a B.Tech or a B.E. degree to the students who opt for it. A degree is fine, but technical excellence is doubtful. Students go out and get some job in corporates and software sector but how far they rise and make a mark for themselves in the long run is an unsolved mystery. Coming to teaching, well there are many good students in Odisha who have either not opted to go out of the state or have neither the means nor the financial support to pursue higher education. Yes, there is a business and a clear-cut business motive, when the management can employ ten faculties for a cheaper pay packet why would they prefer one ‘academically better’ faculty who would cost them a fortune? What difference does this faculty make? The system is such that whomever and whatsoever the management hires, delivers ultimately in equal measure. I have reasoned about teaching in a ‘mediocre’ (that’s what the puritans call them) technical institution with one reply — “who is to be blamed for the mediocrity of any place? Faculty? Students? Management? Society?” Everyone — collectively. IITs or Central Universities, if they are to be considered as ‘hallmarks’ of ‘better’ education, are sustained by a collective will of all the above members of a society. Moreover, it is the “R” factor or the “Research” factor which puts them in a class apart. There are many such “technocrats” from the mushrooming technical institutions who may not even know that Linux is an Operating System or that MATLAB can be used to derive the diagrammatic projection of a set of data entered. But, that is not their fault (not 100%). The same students if they have the passion or the zeal to learn go ahead in life and opt for higher studies and return better equipped. As someone who taught, I confess that I did not myself do my homework as well as I was supposed to have done. The question regarding why other places in India are not at par in education, is almost like the last instance given in this post regarding the beautification of highways while leaving the by-lanes and the gullies to rot. We are in love with shortcuts and easier paths. How much we put at stake and what we want to achieve is something that the students, the faculties, parents and the government have to decide for themselves. For the time being however there is a mushrooming of engineering colleges which either promise to deliver or deliver in newspapers.

However, it is not the mushrooming of technical institutions or the ‘quality’ of education that affects me. I feel disheartened because of the lesser sympathy or let’s say apathy of the students and the society towards liberal arts, literature, humanities studies and cultural studies. I am not sure how are we going to sustain the superstructure of a megalithic educational setup, without sustaining interest in liberal arts and humanities? In Odisha the trend that seems disturbing is the general tendency to interpret humanities, especially language, literature and aesthetics as no more than Personality Development and Communication Skills or else Call Centre support system. I wish we realize and respect the immense potential concealed in roads lesser trodden, that is our own culture, and the government and centres for higher education consider these subjects with equal seriousness.

I have been taking you through the alleys of higher education and civic amenities. But, now we will venture a little deeper into the smaller towns, villages and the State Highway of Odisha. As we move from Bhubaneswar towards Berhampur (business capital of Southern Odisha, closer to Andhra Pradesh border), there is a diversion from the National Highway that takes you on a State Road towards a smaller district called Nayagarh. If you are a party lover and shopping freak, such destinations may not be your cuppa tea.

NH-5

This too is a part of me

If you are an ardent nature lover, or if you are person on the lookout for adventure, then these are the right destinations or let’s say milestones for a traveler. However, be prepared to spend nights in Dawk-Bungalows or in smaller motels with mosquitoes and lizards. The roads are jerky, and you can find nothing but paddy fields extending as far as your eyes can take you or else small farming villages flanked by large banyan trees, dilapidated shops or else a freshly whitewashed primary school building.

A School Complex

The Primary Schools or Higher Secondary Schools are particularly interesting. Modestly built with limestone or red bricks, these schools are immaculately clean. The outer courtyard of the schools are neither cemented nor concrete. However, the earth and mud finish of the courtyards are swept and mopped with such perfection that one gets a romantic longing to return back to school days and study in these schools. Especially as townsfolk who have the ‘privilege’ of studying in Public or Convent schools, and who think that there is no education ‘alternative’ or matching our kind of education, these schools invite rethinking. In fact, some of the top educationists, civil servants, IITians, literary figures and doctors, actually come from these ‘humble’ educational set-ups and even ‘humbler’ homes.

Home

Across The Green Fields

There are a lot of things which are undergoing transformation for either good or worse. This time when I traveled to Odisha, I realized that there are still many things that haven’t changed like the evenings, the hamlets lit with one small lantern or the people who spend time gossiping about ‘bigger’ things like politics and terrorism with the local newspapers at their favourite tea and samosa stall.

There are also many things that have changed like the infiltration of liquor and goonda raj on a grander scale or the setting up of international schools charging a whopping 2-3 lakhs per anum from children of well-to-do families, and so on. This article does not aim to elucidate on either. You might investigate and find that out yourself. The purpose of this write-up was to take you across into a state that remains a mystery for many. From huge multi-star luxury hotels to the humblest dwellings, you can find all if you have the zeal or the curiosity to look deeper than the obvious.

Odisha is not to be understood as a state whose places are relative to the center or Bhubaneswar. There are many beautiful landscapes which do not come close to the perimeter of the capital. One has to look beyond the “golden triangle” of Puri, Konark and Bhubaneswar, in order to explore the essence of the land. I have not been able to capture those landscapes and their life and style for my readers. Maybe in some other post I might be able to write about those places….

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